[larrik]

I think the fact that we need to portray vaccines as essentially infallable in order to combat the insanity of the anti-vax movement is indeed very dangerous and worrisome. There's so much nonsense to combat that having an actual conversation is impossible.

After all, vaccines aren't risk-free, but they don't cause autism.

[Latty]

This is one of these things that is technically true, but still misleading.

Nothing is risk-free. Eating food has risk, taking paracetamol has risk, getting blood drawn has risk.

Saying something has risk without talking about the amount of risk and the context of the risks it mitigates is pointless.

Vaccines introduce negligible amounts of risk. Giving your child a peanut or taking them for a drive is much riskier, and we almost all do those things without a second thought. By contrast, they mitigate huge risks: the diseases we vaccinate against can, did and do cause horrific harm up to and including death, and do so very well.

Vaccines are not immune to criticism, it is just they have weathered all the reasonable criticism leveled at them. If you are willing to put your child in a car, giving them a vaccine should be a complete non-issue for you.